But, in the Monday post, Jalali added that the new virus is tough to eradicate, as it can be “mistaken for executive files of governmental organizations.”

The thing is, no one — apparently outside of Jalali and his colleagues — have actually seen any technical evidence of this new malware.

“We have no further information on this attack at this time,” wrote Mikko Hypponen, a computer security researcher with F-Secure, on his company’s blog. “We can’t tie this case to any particular sample we might already have. We don’t know if this is another cyber attack launched by US Government. We don’t know if Iran officials have just found some ordinary Windows worm and announced it to be a cyber war attack. Hopefully we’ll find out more soon.”

“Outside of the published news reports, McAfee has no information on ‘Stars’ at this time,” wrote Joris Evers, a company spokesperson. “That’s different from Stuxnet, where international cybersecurity companies knew of the malware and were able to investigate it through customary sharing of malware samples. We currently have no way of verifying the attack the Iranian government is reporting, nor do we have any way of identifying who might be behind the attack or what the target could be.”

On Tuesday, Graham Cluley, a researcher at Sophos, posted on Twitter said: “We’d need to see the malware first. And the Iranian reports are far too vague to work out if it’s something we already know about.”

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Cyrus Farivar's The Internet of Elsewhere (Rutgers University Press, May 2011), is a book about the history and effects of the Internet in Senegal, South Korea, Estonia and Iran.

Advance Praise

“Cyrus Farivar has written a brilliant first book. He has the thoughtful pen of a novelist, the observational zeal of an investigative journalist, and the insight of an experienced technologist.”Karim Sadjadpour, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

“Cyrus Farivar’s skill as a perceptive analyst and captivating storyteller lets us see the future of a connected world through his seasoned eyes.”

Ethan Zuckerman, Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University

“Cyrus Farivar, a great friend of Estonia, has chronicled my country's recent and unprecedented technological history with this exceptional book. He understands not only what Estonia can teach the rest of the world, but moreover, he makes the insightful case for the necessity of modern global citizens to understand crucial Internet issues.”The Honorable Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of Estonia